+1
Cool Chris. For a second I thought I had spaced out and not hit post on my thread. I am in the middle of building mine, and the Fxi3's are actually on order, and not in place yet. Got the H/K just recently and let me just say, there is a major difference between the brick and mortar consumer gear found at Best Buy, Circuit City et al. and the stuff that companies like Harman Audio, Outlaw, NAD, and Pioneer Elite put out.
I am a thrifty chap, and the idea of spending $1000+ on a receiver sounded outright ludicrous to me, until I heard the difference. I had a chance to go back and forth between my Sony receiver (best buy, 199$) and the H/K I ended up getting, using the same speaker set-up and the same audio and video media. Both my girlfriend and I were completely blown away by the fidelity, clarity, range, and efficiency of the H/K. All of a sudden, Cold Play was sitting in our living room strumming acoustic guitars. All of a sudden, we were thrust down into the depths of Isenguard as the orcs toiled away at the decimation of the once noble tower fortress. I could actually hear the pick striking the strings of the acoustic guitar on the cold play stuff... WOW! The mid-high end receivers use DACS that sample the digital signal at almost twice the rate of the mass market stuff, the amp sections are massive, and use discrete technology, and the H/K weighs in at almost 50 lbs (!!) while the sony clocks in under 20 lbs. We went back to the Sony after using the H/K for a few hours, to compare some more, and my lady says:
"Man, it sounds like someone just closed a sliding glass door over the band"
We would also experience listener fatigue after only a few minutes with the Sony, and we can go for hours with the H/K immersed in the warm, rich sound field. It makes all the difference in the world, I now see.
Now, did we spend the 1000+ dollars getting this unit? Nope. We went the b-stock route, which is the reason we decided on the H/K over the other choices we were considering. H/K offers full, as-new 2 year (!!!) warranty on all B-stock items that they sell from their outlet. We got the receiver, with all accessories etc for $497. For just a bit more than what we would have paid for a much lesser unit new, we got a piece of amazing audio gear from a top company. I am soooo glad we did this, as we are constantly blown away by the quality of this thing. Anyway, enough plugs for H/K, but I wanted to let people know about the fantastic gear we got at a great price, with warranty coverage.